30 Jun 2011

It's always disconcerting when you read reviews of a book you've read and loved - only to find that others have not loved it at all...

I have just recently finished Wither by Lauren DeStefano and enjoyed it immensely. However upon logging into my GoodReads account I noticed that one of my friends had just started reading it - only she wasn't enjoying it at all. In fact she seemed to be deeply unimpressed after a mere four pages in. I couldn't help feeling like this was an attack on me personally! I felt a maternal need to protect my glorious, just-finished, love.

But I really shouldn't feel so bad - after all, I have walked in those very shoes. How people can make their way through Lauren Kate's pureTorment without banging their head against a brick wall, I'll never know.
Some people enjoy it. Who am I to judge?

I recently recommended a book called Jennifer Government by Max Barry to a friend of mine - only to have him report back that he hated it! How is this possible? I thought. It's one of my favourite books! I was so confused. How could anyone hate that book that I loved?

But while sometimes I wish that I could live in a world where everyone loves the books I love, and hates the books I hate - it really would be no fun at all.
We're all different for a reason and sometimes it's nice to be reminded of that and to take joy in it rather than getting distressed about it all.

...

And sometimes it's good to have a rant about the whole darned thing *grins*

3
comments:

I know exactly what you mean. For the record, I quite enjoyed Wither but probably not as much as you. And I'm with you on the Lauren Kate books. I can usually understand why people don't like certain books. Twilight for example. It pains me to see all the Twilight hate out there, because I am an undying fan. But I also think people have good reasons for disliking it. I just happen to look past the books' flaws.New follower, btw. I'm a moderator at the book blogger directory and found your blog when I added it to the directory. Congrats on being newly active blogger. If you're looking for more publicity, you might want to try the Friday Follow at parajunkee.com. Sorry for the unsolicited advice :-)

And thank you Alison! I'll take all the help I can get at this stage *grins* I really enjoyed Twilight when I was reading it, but I wont say that it's on my favourites list *grins* I think my mum loves them much more than me, which is fantastic :p